Ridin' Dirty Volume V

The latest batch of shots we've taken (mostly) on our cycling trips around town.

It's been awhile -- time for another iPhone dump of some of my favorite shots I've taken of this fabulously messed-up city we call home. As the great 30footFALL singer / longtime downtown bike messenger Butch Klotz once put it: "Houston. You love it because it's made of garbage."

Riding the side streets along N. Durham and N. Shepherd one Saturday afternoon, I came across this little lady chomping grass near a car lot. She had a friend across the street working the same gig.

It took all my Facebook friends a couple of hours to help me puzzle out the meaning of this strange sign I found across the street from the Sonic near N. Shepherd and 610. I thought it was runic, but it ain't, nomtombot?

This beauty is often posted up outside Big Star Bar in Shady Acres.

Groucho glasses at the Bellaire Nature Center.

Jedi sign in the First Ward Arts District.

Cranky sign on a North Main convenience store's front door.

Boots at the pulga at Hillcroft and the Southwest Freeway. I can't decide between the tiger stripes or the checkerboard, and I need the Columbia blue ones for Oilers parties.

I have been commanded to "Stop N' Go," "Tote-M," and even, in Colorado, to "Kum N Go," but I have never been ordered around by a convenience store with as much specificity as at this Spring Branch shop. Even so it's a bit confusing. I get that they want me to stop then buy something, but what? Just some food or the whole food store?

How the West Was Won, Versions 1.0 and 2.0. (Taken in Independence Heights.)

This is not the boot and shoe repair store you are looking for...

And this is not the Happyland it once was...

I'll close on an inspirational note. Against all odds, this thing still works.

So until next time, keep your lens cleaned, those tires pumped, and your chains good and greasy and I'll see you up the trail.